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Commentaries On The Model Rules Of Professional Conduct, Thomas Andrews, Karen Boxx

Books

This Fifth Edition of the ACTEC Commentaries continues the tradition of providing guidance on the Model Rules of Professional Conduct particular to estate and trust practitioners. The Fifth Edition update to the Commentaries takes account of amendments to the Model Rules adopted since the 2005 Fourth Edition, including those proposed by the American Bar Association Commission on Ethics 20/20 as adopted by the ABA in 2012 and 2013. It is current through August 31, 2015 as there have been no amendments to the Model Rules since 2013.

In addition to these updates, we have added Commentary and Annotations to four …

Towards An Institutional Challenge Of Imprisonment For Legal Financial Obligation Nonpayment In Washington State, Devon King

Washington Law Review

Imprisonment for debt is resurfacing in the United States, primarily in the form of contempt proceedings for failure to pay court judgments. Although Washington’s Constitution prohibits imprisonment for debt, the State repeatedly jails individuals for failing to pay legal financial obligations. This Comment explores the adverse consequences of this de facto debtors’ prison system, describes the strong prohibition on imprisonment for debt found in article I, section 17 of the Washington Constitution, and argues that imprisonment for failing to pay legal financial obligations violates that strong prohibition. It then discusses how case law has degraded article I, section 17, making …

Second Annual Report, University Of Washington School Of Law

Tech Policy Lab

The Tech Policy Lab at the University of Washington continues to pick up steam in our second year. We have hosted national policy discussions, collaborated directly with policymakers on open data and other issues, and continue to develop strong, method-based interdisciplinary research.

"The Shameful Wall Of Exclusion": How Solitary Confinement For Inmates With Mental Illness Violates The Americans With Disabilities Act, Jessica Knowles

Washington Law Review

Although solitary confinement is conventionally challenged under the “cruel and unusual” standard of the Eighth Amendment, this approach presents several intractable legal hurdles to successful claims. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), 42 U.S.C. §§ 12101 et seq., and its precursor, the Rehabilitation Act, provide innovative and non-constitutional causes of action for inmates with mental illness1 to challenge their solitary confinement. It is estimated that at least thirty percent of inmates in solitary confinement are mentally ill, a high percentage that is due to both the disproportionate number of mentally ill inmates who are isolated from the general prison population …

A New Generation Of Class Action Cy Pres Remedies: Lessons From Washington State, Cecily C. Shiel

Washington Law Review

The use of cy pres as a mechanism to distribute residual funds in class actions has become increasingly common and the subject of much controversy. In the class action context, cy pres is an equitable remedy used by courts to appropriate class action settlement funds remaining after all identified class parties have been compensated to the funds’ “next best use,” usually to a charity. The controversy has stemmed primarily from a lack of clear judicially enforced standards on how and when to use cy pres. In light of recent controversy, both the Federal Rules Committee, and potentially the Supreme Court, …

Patching Old Wineskins: Heightened Deference Towards Saiban-In Findings Of Fact On Koso Appeals Is Not Enough, Caleb Jon F. Vandenbos

Washington International Law Journal

The successful introduction of the saiban-in seido—the Japanese lay assessor system—was a tremendous step towards creating meaningful exchange between the public and the judiciary and democratizing the criminal justice system in Japan. To preserve the quality of this exchange, judges must conscientiously solicit and respect lay assessor input during deliberations, and saiban-in decisions must retain their force on appeal. Under current appellate procedure, however, saiban-in findings of fact may be replaced on koso appeal. Koso appeals threaten to eviscerate lay participants’ contributions in the individual case being reviewed and, in the long term, will discourage judges from taking lay …

Rethinking Virtual Currency Regulation In The Bitcoin Age, Kevin V. Tu, Michael W. Meredith

Washington Law Review

This Article investigates an increasingly important yet under-developed body of law: regulation of virtual currency. At its peak in March of 2014, the daily volume of Bitcoin transactions in United States dollars exceeded $575,000,000. The growing mainstream acceptance of Bitcoin, however, is best illustrated by the growing number of leading merchants that have decided to accept Bitcoin payments. While Bitcoin’s rise as an alternative payment method is well-chronicled, Bitcoin’s impact extends further due to its use as an investment vehicle and its ability to spur the growth of an industry of Bitcoin-based businesses. Despite increasingly widespread use, Bitcoin (and other …

Libraries And Legal Education, Jonathan Franklin

Librarians' Chapters in Books

Academic law libraries are in the midst of radical change, probably more so than at any time in the past 100 years. Two factors are converging that make business as usual no longer viable for academic law libraries: transition of legal resources from print to digital formats and economic changes in legal education.

Best Practices for Legal Education did not address the role of law libraries in the delivery of legal education. The changes facing law schools suggest now is the time to articulate how libraries can best contribute to the endeavor. How can best practices for law libraries be …

Cross-Boarder Teaching And Collaboration, Kimberly D. Ambrose, William H.D. Fernholz, Catherine F. Klein, Dana Raigrodski, Stephen A. Rosenbaum, Leah Wortham

Chapters in Books

Since the publication of Best Practices for Legal Education, the globalization of both legal education and law practice has exploded. Today’s lawyers increasingly serve border-crossing clients or clients who present with transnational legal issues. As law schools expand their international programs, and enroll increasing numbers of non-U.S. law students, law students transcend cultural and legal borders. As a result, they deepen their understanding of—and sharpen their critical perspective on—their own national systems. Similarly, U.S. law teachers are increasingly called to engage in border-crossing teaching and other academic pursuits. Best Practices did not address these issues. The primary aim of …

Pathways, Integration, And Sequencing The Curriculum, Deborah Maranville, Cynthia Batt

Chapters in Books

Law school course offerings have proliferated in recent decades. This development reflects the addition of specialized doctrinal courses, a growing emphasis on interdisciplinary knowledge, and the incorporation of practice-oriented courses. From the perspective of the individual student, an expanded curriculum may create exciting educational opportunities while posing trade-offs between a generalist education and specialization.

Law schools face two key challenges. First, they must structure the curriculum so that the experiences of individual law students have some coherence, or, if you will, seem integrated. Second they must incorporate the full range of what the Carnegie Reports referred to as the apprenticeships …

Incorporating Experiential Education Throughout The Curriculum, Deborah Maranville, Cynthia Batt, Lisa Radtke Bliss, Carolyn Wilkes Kaas

Chapters in Books

In discussing experiential education, Best Practices for Legal Education focused primarily on the three traditional types of separate experiential courses: in-house clinics, externships, and simulations, and treated them in a separate chapter. These courses were defined as those where “experience is a significant or primary method of instruction” rather than a secondary method, and where “students must perform complex skills in order to gain expertise.”

Arguably, this separate treatment reinforced what has too often been a divide between doctrinally-focused teaching and practice-focused teaching. Best Practices recognized that “experiential education can be employed as an adjunct to traditional methodologies regardless of …

Ensuring Effective Education In Alternative Clinical Models, Deborah Maranville

Chapters in Books

Best Practices for Legal Education organized its discussion of experiential courses around the “simulation-based courses, in-house clinics, and externships” typology without specifically defining what structures fall within each category or discussing the variations. The discussion of in-house clinics focused on fundamental principles for effective teaching and supervision and the need for appropriate facilities and office support. It only implicitly addressed the range of issues presented by alternative structures for clinics and did not address alternative externship structures or variations that combine features of both.

Pathways, Integration, And Sequencing The Curriculum, Deborah Maranville, Cynthia Batt

Books

Law school course offerings have proliferated in recent decades. This development reflects the addition of specialized doctrinal courses, a growing emphasis on interdisciplinary knowledge, and the incorporation of practice-oriented courses. From the perspective of the individual student, an expanded curriculum may create exciting educational opportunities while posing trade-offs between a generalist education and specialization.

Law schools face two key challenges. First, they must structure the curriculum so that the experiences of individual law students have some coherence, or, if you will, seem integrated. Second they must incorporate the full range of what the Carnegie Reports referred to as the apprenticeships …

Incorporating Experiential Education Throughout The Curriculum, Deborah Maranville, Cynthia Batt, Lisa Radtke Bliss, Carolyn Wilkes Kaas

Books

In discussing experiential education, Best Practices for Legal Education focused primarily on the three traditional types of separate experiential courses: in-house clinics, externships, and simulations, and treated them in a separate chapter. These courses were defined as those where “experience is a significant or primary method of instruction” rather than a secondary method, and where “students must perform complex skills in order to gain expertise.”

Arguably, this separate treatment reinforced what has too often been a divide between doctrinally-focused teaching and practice-focused teaching. Best Practices recognized that “experiential education can be employed as an adjunct to traditional methodologies regardless of …

Ensuring Effective Education In Alternative Clinical Models, Deborah Maranville

Books

Best Practices for Legal Education organized its discussion of experiential courses around the “simulation-based courses, in-house clinics, and externships” typology without specifically defining what structures fall within each category or discussing the variations. The discussion of in-house clinics focused on fundamental principles for effective teaching and supervision and the need for appropriate facilities and office support. It only implicitly addressed the range of issues presented by alternative structures for clinics and did not address alternative externship structures or variations that combine features of both.

Institutionalizing The Uspto Law School Clinic Certification Program For Transactional Law Clinics, Jennifer S. Fan

Articles

With 188 transactional law clinics nationwide and the United States Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”) Law School Clinic Certification Program (“Program”) recently established as a statutory program of the USPTO, this Article argues that every transactional clinic that works on trademark and patent applications should apply to become part of the Program. In satisfying the participation requirements of the Program, transactional law clinics will usher in a new, uniform way to educate aspiring intellectual property attorneys. As a result, the law students will not only be “practice ready,” but also more effective attorneys once they are in practice. Participating in …

Revisiting The Client Conundrum: Whom Does Lawyer For A Government Represent, And Who Gives Direction To That Governmental Lawyer?, Hugh D. Spitzer

Articles

The issue of identifying a government attorney’s client is age-old, and Washington’s Rules of Professional Conduct provide somewhat different answers for lawyers who are government employees and for those who are with private firms. The matter becomes even more interesting when a government entity’s attorney is a publicly-elected legal official: an attorney general, prosecuting attorney, or city attorney in the case of Seattle and a number of other cities around the country. Others have written thoughtful pieces on the topic from a national perspective, and there is at least one excellent but slightly outdated piece by District of Columbia municipal …

Financing Innovation: Legal Development Of Intellectual Property As Security In Financing, 1845–2014, Xuan-Thao Nguyen

Articles

There is a need for both traditional and online lenders to appreciate the intellectual property assets held by small businesses. The intellectual property assets should be included in the analytics in assessing the overall health of a business seeking a loan or a line of credit for its new innovative product, idea, or vision. The Article ends with a brief conclusion that in order to maintain the United States’ innovative edge, attention to the access to financing by small businesses must be at the center of the discussion, and intellectual property must be recognized as part of that center.

Experience The Future: Papers From The Second National Symposium On Experiential Education In Law: Alliance For Experiential Learning In Law, Christine N. Cimini, Roberto L. Corrada, Myra Berman, Christine E. Cerniglia, Katherine R. Kruse

Articles

On June 13-15, 2014 the Second National Symposium on Experiential Educa­tion in Law took place in Greensboro, North Carolina. The Alliance for Experi­ential Learning in Law and Elon University School of Law hosted the symposium, with the support of Northeastern University School of Law. Presenters included professors and practitioners across multiple disciplines, in­cluding business, medicine, and architecture, and they shared their insights about the value of experiential education in their fields. Working from the Alliance for Experiential Learning in Law also presented their findings and distributed a set of working papers, which eventually culminated into this report. The report covers …

Drafting Agreements As An Attorney-Mediator: Revisiting Washington State Bar Association Advisory Opinion 2223, Caitlin Park Shin

Washington Law Review

This Comment argues that Washington State Bar Association Advisory Opinion 2223 (WSBA Advisory Opinion 2223) should be revisited. WSBA Advisory Opinion 2223 reaches the unqualified conclusion that an attorney-mediator violates the Washington Rules of Professional Conduct (RPC) when drafting legal documents such as Property Settlement Agreements, Orders of Child Support, or Parenting Plans for unrepresented parties. WSBA Advisory Opinion 2223 creates confusion because it contains two significant flaws: (1) an omission of relevant comments to the RPC, and (2) an inconsistent reliance on extra-jurisdictional authority. Given WSBA Advisory Opinion 2223’s practical ramifications, the opinion should be reconsidered. Reexamining this opinion …

Miller'S Promise: Re-Evaluating Extreme Criminal Sentences For Children, Nick Straley

Washington Law Review

Scientific, legal, and societal notions about youth have come together to reaffirm an age-old concept—children are different and they change as they grow older. In recent decisions, the United States Supreme Court has required courts and legislatures to take a new look at extreme criminal sentences imposed upon children. Life without parole sentences and decades-long, determinate sentences are constitutionally suspect when applied to children because they fail to adequately account for the dynamism of youth. Miller v. Alabama and Graham v. Florida announced two important principles: (1) that an extreme sentence can only be imposed upon a child following an …

Uwlaw, Fall 2014, Vol. 68

Alumni Magazines

No abstract provided.

Plaintiffs' Answer To The Amicus Brief Of Mr. Eugster

Washington Supreme Court Documents

No abstract provided.

Plaintiffs' Answer To The Amicus Brief Of The Washington State Budget & Policy Center, Et Al.

Washington Supreme Court Documents

No abstract provided.

Plaintiffs' Answer To The Amicus Brief Of Columbia Legal Services, Children's Alliance, And Low Income Housing Alliance

Washington Supreme Court Documents

No abstract provided.

Plaintiffs' Answer To The Amicus Brief Of Superintendent Dorn

Washington Supreme Court Documents

No abstract provided.

Plaintiffs' Answer To The Amicus Brief Of Past Governors

Washington Supreme Court Documents

No abstract provided.

State Of Washington's Reply Brief Addressing Order To Show Cause

Washington Supreme Court Documents

No abstract provided.

Amici Curiae Of Columbia Legal Services, The Children's Alliance, And The Washington Low Income Housing Alliance

Washington Supreme Court Documents

No abstract provided.

Much Ado About Something: The First Amendment And Mandatory Labeling Of Genetically Engineered Foods, Stephen Tan, Brian Epley

Washington Law Review

This Article evaluates the free speech implications of laws requiring that GE foods be labeled and concludes that such regulations would meet all First Amendment requirements for compelled commercial speech. Part I traces the history of food labeling in the United States, the advent of genetic engineering, and the application of that technology in agriculture and the food industry. Part II evaluates the scope of commercial free speech and the appropriate test to be applied in determining whether a GE food labeling law would violate the First Amendment. Part III examines the impacts of an agricultural and food system increasingly …